Erebos
by ScarletShad0w
Summary: Kirito once again has to fulfill a job for Kikuoka. This time he has to investigate the mysterious game Erebos. No player is allowed to tell anything about it to outsiders and no one knows the identity of the other players. The people who play it suddenly are more aggressive and game seems to know everything you do. What is behind the game and will Kirito be able to stop it?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: **Thank you very much for reading my story. It is my first SAO FF and I'm new to FFs in general. Since english isn't my first language I would appreciate it if you would tell me if I have made grammar or type errors.

Disclaimer:  I own neither Erebos which belongs to Ursula Poznanski nor Sword Art Online

* * *

Once again Kirito was called by the mysterious Kikuoka. And like always he hadn't been told the reason, only that his help was needed again. So he had no choice but to go to the usual restaurant where he always felt lost with his normal clothes and tousled hair.

"What kind of job do I have to do this time?", Kirito asked omitting the pleasantries, but Kikuoka only answered like so often with a question.

"Did you notice an unusal amount of absent students at your school or is their behaviour strange?"

"At this time of the year its normal for many students to be ill. It's just the normal flu. And their behaviour isn't any more strange than before. After all it's a school for puplis who were hold captive in Sword Art Online for two years, it is normal that some of them haven't completly recovered psychologically."

"So you really didn't notice anything abnormal?"

"If you want to know it that exactly, some of the students have grown quieter and a few often look back, as if they were afraid to be tracked by anyone. But why do you ask?"

"Because it has caught attention at quite a few schools that the students behave strangeky. Many skip school, have deep shadows under the eyes or sleep during class. And, like you have said, it seems that the students don't talk to each other as much as usual, as if they were afraid that the other students would taddle on them because of something."

"Do you have any idea what's the cause of it?"

"Teachers have noticed students giving away quadratic packets. We assume that it is some kind of video game. But the players aren't allowed to disclose anything about the game and those who won't follow that rule don't get the game. So it's hard to get any information."

"So you want me to play the game and investigate the reason for the sudden change if the students behaviour?"

"Exactly. It seems as if every player has to give the game to another throughout the game, so the probability that you are asked to take the game are high, since you are well known for being a good SAO player at your school.

"ok, I take the job. But I can't gurantee anything."

The next day at school...

When Kirito came to school, he first noticed the policecars lined up infront of the schoolgate. Curious what was happening, he asked a nearby classmate.

"Do you know, why the police is here?"

"they say that weapons have been found hidden on the school ground, big knives and guns. But I'm sure it was a false alarm because of waterguns and pocket knives.", the student answered not the leadt bit worried.

Arriving at the classroom, Kirito instantly noticed the many abandonend seats and the bad condition of many of the present students. When he asked why they looked so exhausted, they only answered offendingly or had bad excuses like having partied too much or having a in chemistry he finally saw something interesting. A young blonde girl tried to convince Asuna to take one of those mystirious packets._That must be the legendary game_, Kirito thought and sneaked a few steps further to listen into the conversaition.

"The CD is really great, you will like it" the unknown girl said.

"But what exactly is it?", Asuna asked curiously.

"That, I'm not allowed to say.", the girl looked around herself nervously, "if you take it, you are not allowed to tell anything about it either."

"That's stupid! I don't want to have anything to do with something dubious like that. I can see how strange everyone behaves nowadays, that isn't normal", Asuna rejected the girl.

At the end of the lesson, Kirito approached Asuna.

"Hi Asuna. I've seen that someone wanted to give you something strange. Do yiu know what it was?"

"Hey Kirito. No, the girl didn't want say anything. She was the already the third person this week who tried to give me that strange CD."

"Too bad. I've heared that it is some kind of new game and wanted to try it.", Kirito said dejected.

"Try not to get into trouble again. You are like a magnet for dangerous situations.", Asuna warned him half jokingly.

"I'll take care of myself, don't worry.", he reassured her.

At the end of school, just as Kirito thought that he wouldn't find out anything new that day, a younger student walked up to him.

"You are the legendary Black Swordsman, aren't you? Are you interested in a new, really cool game?"

_That must be it_, Kirito thought. "Yeah. Of course I'm interested."

"But you are not allowed to tell anyone about the game."

"Ok."

"Your parents and siblings don't roam around your room without asking either?"

"Nope."

"Good", the boy gave Kirito the CD. "And if anyone asks who gave it to you, it wasn't me, got it?"

"Right."

Kirito coulnd't wait to lift the secret around the CD and rushed home. As he arrived he skipped dinner and ran to his room, put on his NerveGear amd started the game.

At first everything around him was just black. Than a crimson red writing appeared.

'This is Erebos

Enter

Leave'

He chose 'Enter'. Than everything went black again and after a short time the crimson writing appeared anew.

'The players of Erebos have to abide the rules of the game, those who break the rules won't be able to play any more'

"OK"

'1. You only have one chance to play the game. When your character dies the game ends.'

"Ok"

'2. You mustn't talk with anyone about the game and also aren't allowed to disclose your identity during the game. To gurantee that no one recognizes your character you aren't allowed to convert avatars from a different game.'

"Ok"

'3. You are not allowed to copy the disk, besides when the game tells you to. Keep the disk well hidden, because you need it to start the game.'

"ok"

'who are you?'

"Kirito"

'what is your name?'

"Kisame Toyama"

'Your real name'

_How did the game knew that he had lied? He couldn't make a rhyme out of it._

"Kirigaya Kazuto"

Kirigaya Kazuto,Kirigaya Kazuto echoed the darkness.

'Welcome to Erebos'

**Please Review! I will only update when I have at least three reviews telling me to continue!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: **Thank you very much for reading my story. And a big thank you as well goes to the kind people who subscribed and took their time to review. You motivated me to keep writing.

Does anyone with good grammar skills want to beta this story? I would really appreciate it.

**Disclaimer: I own neither the book Erebos nor Sword Art Online**

_Thoughts_

__"Dialogue"

* * *

Kirito found himself inside of a dark forest. The landscape was similar to his starting point in AlfheimOnline. The sky was tinted in a menacing grey and he couldn't see anything around him besides trees. His Avatar seemed strange, as if it was just a prototype that could grow into anything but didn't have exact features till now. And as if to confirm his train of thought, he saw over his lifeforce the word 'anonymous'.

_when will I be able to configurate my character?_, Kirito asked himself.

Excited to finally reach that point and to learn more about the game, he climbed the nearest tree. From there he had a good overview over his surroundings. Around him, the forest seemed to continue endlessly, but in the nordwest he saw smoke rising up.

_There must be people. Maybe my first quest is to find them to give me the next task, and if not, they surely can tell me at least what I'm supposed to do_, Kirito thought, climbed down the tree and hurriedly departed in the direction of the smoke. But he realized soon, that the stamina of his character wasn't the best, so that he couldn't nearly run as fast as he was used to from SAO or ALO. And that wasn't his only problem. After about a kilometer he came across a deep canyon too broad to jump over and too deep to climb. But he couldn't take the risk to take a detour, because he would not only loose precious time, but also would probably loose sight of his goal.

So he looked around in search of a solution. Not too far from him, he saw a fallen tree which he could use as a bridge to cross the canyon, if he could push it over it.

After strenous pushing and pulling he finally got it. But as he crossed the tree trunk, he noticed that it wasn't as steady as he thought it was. As he had almost reached the end, the trunk rolled aside and he could barely save himself from falling to death trough a swan dive.

Finally having reached the other side, the only thing that could stop him now from sprinting to the source of the smoke was his stamina bar. As he got nearer, he realized that the smoke came from a campfire, which was made by a person with a long dark coat that hid his face, sitting beside it.

"greetings, anonymous traveller. Your solution to crossing the canyon was clever."

_A normal NPC_, Kirito thought dissapointed, _if he doesn't give me a new quest, he surely won't be able to answer my questions since they can only answer to things that had been preinstalled._

"Good day", he greeted the NPC friendly.

"If you decide to go on, you will begin your fight for Erebos", the NPC informed him.

"Would you advise me to continue?", Kirito asked without expecting an answer.

"No, I wouldn't.", the mysterious NPC answered.

_Strange. Why would the game tell the users to stop playing?_, Kirito wondered.

"Who are you?"

"A dead."

_That's getting stranger by the minute. But if I don't continue, I will never find out what the big secret of this game is._

"I have decided to continue." Kirito informed.

"Everyone does in the end. But you won't be able to say that I haven't warned you. Remember that you can quit anytime, if you don't want to continue anymore. Now follow the canyon to a dark tower. There you will find your next task. Good luck!

By the way, you can only talk to other players at a campfire."

"Ok."

Kirito passed soundlessly by the mysterious dead into the canyon. He still didn't have an inventar, so he picked up a long stick instead of his missing sword to defend himself against ennemies that might appear.

His alertness was good, because just as he had crossed about a third of the canyon, three bug rats jumped onto him out of a bush. Through his experience in SAO he had the advantage that he already knew how to fight, but his Avatar couldn't keep up with Kirito's usual speed and strength because of his low stats, so he had to take a few hits that reduced his already small life bar. When he finally finished off his opponents, he got some meat as a reward which he immediatly ate to fill up his life bar again. Kirito stayed alert the rest of the way to not get attacked by surprise, but no further attack followed.

At the end of the canyon was, like the dead had told him, a big, dark tower. But as Kirito entered, he didn't found himself inside of a dungeon as he had thought he would, instead there was only a long spiral staircase with a lot of signs alongside it. As he didn't find anything else on the first floor, he walked towards the first sign.

'Congratulations. You have proofed yourself to be worthy. Choos the gender of your player'

"male"

He went to the next sign to further configurate his avatar.

'Choose the race of your player. Every race has different advantages and disadvantages. Choose wisely.'

He could decide between dark elves, barbarians, dwarfs, humans and vampires. Since he placed great importance on agility he decided to play as a dark elf.

'Choose the appeareance of your player.'

Since Kirito didn't want to be recognized too fast by his classmates, he didn't let his avatar look like the one he had in SAO or ALO, but decided to have long black hair like in GGO, crimson eyes and a black leather armor that perfectly fit his nickname 'the black swordsman'.

A goblin entered the room as he walked towards the next sign

'choose an occupation'

But it was unusual, that you could only choose combat related jobs or those that supported the team. Ones who relied on craft skills like smith or cook were completly left out.

"Elves are good mages or thieves", the goblin adviced.

Since Kirito didn't like magic and prefered to fight at the front lines instead of hiding in the back ground, he decided to be a warrior and ignored the advice of the goblin.

'Choose a weapon'

To complete his appeareance Kirito decided to take two black, heavy swords.

"are you sure that you want to play with two swords? It won't necessarily makes you stronger if you can't handle them. Maybe it would be wiser to take a shield instead.", the goblin offered.

"Thanks for your advice, but I can handle them just fine.", Kirito rejected the offer.

Now he had reached the last sign.

'Name your player'

"Kirito"

Finally he had finished configurating his avatar and could now explore the new world.

He left the tower towards west, where he directly found berries that he put into his newly acquired pouch. But the lucky catch let him grow inattentive, so that he didn't notice a group of thieves that had sneaked up from behind. They knocked him down and paralysed him with magic. It didn't matter how much he tried to struggle and scream, it didn't work. They tied him up and threw him like baggage over one of the thieves' shoulders and took off.

_My time in Erebos had been way too short, thought Kirito as he was carried away by his kidnappers..._

_**Please review!**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**AN: **_Thank you guys for reading the story. The biggest thanks goes to the kind people who took their time to review, favorite and subscribe. Sorry for the long wait, but I had a lot to do with school since I'm in my final year of high school and my final exams are coming soon, so I can't promise regular updates. But I try to update at least once every two month from now. My other reason for the late update was a big problem with the plot that is now solved._

_If you have ideas for OCs you want to appear either inside of the game or as Kiritos class mates send them to me and I'll be happy to let them take part in the story._

**Disclaimer**: I own neither Erebos nor Sword Art Online. All right belong to their respective owners.

* * *

His abductors took him to the rest of the thieves, which were sitting around a campfire already waiting for their companions to return.

"We caught another one, boss", shouted the youngest of his kidnappers.

"Well done. Let us look through his belongings, maybe we'll find something usable", the boss answered starting to look through his pockets. Kirito couldn't do anything against it, since he was still paralysed.

"That guy is a total newbie, he doesn't have anything beside a few berries and some meat. You have only caught someone useless again. Next time take a look at the level. Don't catch tose stupid level 1 one guys anymore.", he complained.

The other thieves than immediatly took out their knives to kill him, but the boss stopped them.

"Killing newbies is useless. They won't give us any exp. This one's not suitable. He doesn't fit in, you can tell by his clothing. He's one of those who are moving against Ortolan.

The thing is though, I'm afraid it's mostly the little ones who lose. Like you. But I'm not going to lay a hand on any of them.

No-one here is your friend. Even if it looks that way to you. No-one will help you, because everyone wants to get into the Inner Circle and only very few make it.

Don't divulge any of what I'm telling you to the others. Don't rob yourself of your advantage – it's small enough. See to it that you find wish crystals. They will make your life easier. Your life, do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand. But what are wish crystals?"

Wish crystals are one of the biggest secrets of Erebos. They serve you. They make the impossible possible. They make your dreams come true.'"

Resignedly his kidnappers lossened the rope he was tied with. Finally free again and with the knowledge that they won't kill him, Kirito began questioning the boss.

"How do you know that I'm only at level 1?"

"You can see the level of weaker players, but not those of the same or higher rank."

"Don't tell him too much. You know that Erebos does't like it when we give other players to much information, warned the thief who had wanted to kill Kirito before."

"He would have gotten to know that soon anyway. But you are right. I don't want to be thrown out of the game for talking to much", the boss agreed and send Kirito away.

Finally free to do what he wanted and even having more information about this strange game, Kirito continued travelling with the aim to get to know more about the Inner Circle, Ortholan and Erebos in general. Since he didn't have a map, he just went straight on through the forrest, hoping to find a village or at least find other players.

After a while he reached a strange wall. Inspecting it more detailedly, he could recognize the letters "er", the rest was hidden by plants. So he cut the annoying greenery and cut free the inscription.

'Enter the net''

How ingenious. Enter the net to be the prey of the monsters. He did how he was told and connected to the internet from inside of the game. Being online anyway, he decided to check the news of ALO.

Since he had acquired the legendary sword Excalibur he had searched for a fitting sword to perfect his two-sword style, because none of the normal swords could keep up with the legendary sword. But one of the higher ranking players had found another legendary sword not long ago, Balmung, which was now set in an auction. The auction would already end tomorrow evening at twelve o'clock, but the price had reached already over a million dollars, nothing a normal high school boy could afford, and the price kept rising. After taking a look at the newest biddings at the auction, he left the internet connection. Meanwhile the inscription had faded away and a door had taken its place.

'Do you want to enter into the hidden zone?'

He confirmed and found himself in dark clearing surrounded by big oaks. Looking behind the wall, he could see a battle: A barbarian, a cat woman, a werewolf, two dwarfs, three vampires and two dark elves were doing battle against a group of over ten giant orcs. A vampire lady with long brown hair who was fighting with a scythe was about to be killed by an orc, but she seemed to be conscious of the danger and withdrew behind a group of trees. But the other players seemed to be stronger, even though he couldn't see their level. The dwarves were fighting well, despite not even being able to reach the shoulders of the trolls. They targeted the knee caps of their ennemies to bring them to their own height. One of them seemed to have a lot of fun, he brandished his axe at hem laughingly. Kirito could have sworn that he heard him insulting the orcs as pigheads, but that couldn't be, since they could only start a conversation near a campfire.

After observing the battle for a short while to get a better understanding of the fighting pattern of the orcs, he ran towards the orc who had tried to kill the vampire girl.

Even though his experience in battle should have made the fight easy for him, were his hits not as strong as they should have been, so he had to take quite some damage. Just because of his low level and the resulting low stats. One of the other dark elves withdrew to where the vampire was hiding, since continuing the battle seemed to risky to him. After all a game over would mean to never be able to play the game again.

When all orcs had been finally slayed, a strange creature with a black coat and glowing yellow eyes rode on a shadow-like horse towards them. Kirito was afraid, that he wouldn't be able to fight so soon again and was wondering why his fellow fighters were staying calm about the new arrival. But his worries were unneccessary since the creature seemed to be a messenger of the game.

He spoke to them one after another

"Imgrimsch, he spoke to the cheerfull dwarf, despite your inferior height you defeated the most orcs. For that I will award you with a new stronger axe, the orc slayer. May it assist you well in battle.

Black Rose, he called to the dark skinned,pink haired cat women, you used your agility very well to hide your lack of strenght. For that I will award you with 5 agility points.

Kirito, even if it was your first fight, you fought without fear and helped greatly to defeat the orcs, but since you entered later than the rest you will get only 3 strenght points.

Siberias, you only struck a few ineffective blows and than cowardly hid behind the trees. I will deprive you of one level if your next fight isn't any better", one of the dark elves with long, dark hair and blue eyes went pale.

After that he went to the vampire who was almost killed "Yuki, you come with me."

Than the messenger gave the rest of them a few coins or health potion, depending on how much they helped in battle.

"You have the permission to light a fire", after saying that, the messenger vanished along with Yuki.

"What do you think the messenger wants from Yuki, Guliastos?", Siberias asked a purple haired dark elf archer after lighting a fire.

"Who cares? She will be a four when she returns anyway. If she returns.", Guliastos retortet.

"Where did he take her?", Kirito inquired. But he was only told that he will find out soon enough and that they weren't allowed to tell because of his low level.

"Does anyone know where Sinthoras is?", Imgrimsch asked the others.

"He probably has a mission on the outside", Black Rose answered and than spoke to me

"There are too many for this last fight. The big battle against Ortolan. Only five or six people can be in on it, and then they're going to win . . . a sort of jackpot. You wouldn't believe how keen Sinthoras is to do it.'

"We have especially too many of those week dark elves", Imgrimsch added.

"Stupid dwarf! As if you could do anything better. You can't even reach most of the ennemies!", Siberias shouted angrily.

"Geez, calm down guys. You know that the messenger doesn't like arguments. He even threw people out because of swearing", Guliastos tried to calm them.

"Don't be such a worryward Gui", Black Rose said relaxed, " the messenger's gnome would have already turned up a long since and cautioned him. They're always there straightaway if there's the teensiest breach of the rules."

Kirito feared that they start quarreling again, but fate had something set aside for him.

A gnome appeared.

'Water ghosts took over the local rivers make fishing impossoble. Help the villagers to make the rivers save again'

As soon as the others finished reading the details of the mission, they started sprinting towards the direction where the river was located. Kirito tried to run after them, but even the dwarves were faster than him. Somehow everything had to do with levels, but how do you acquire them? Kirito hadn't seen any bar with experience points telling him how long it would take to reach the next level. The only thing he could see in his menu were his stats and his equipment, not even a saving option. But at least there was a log out button, it wouldn't be funny to be locked inside an online game again.

Afer resting for a short period, he reached the river bed, which was of a strange orange colour, where the others were already engaged in a fight against the water ghosts, or at least what had been left of the group. Siberias was badly hurt and looked like his was thinking whether it was better to keep fighting with the risk of death or hiding and getting demoted.

Imgrimsch and the other dwarf, together with the dark elves were already keeping a safe distance. The only one still fighting was Black Rose. She had been cought by the water ghosts and wasn't able to free herself, her healthbar shrinking by the second. Since the messenger didn't like cowards and Kirito wasn't someone who would let his comrades die, he decided to take on the ghosts to rescue Black Rose. But he realised that he wasn't able to inflict any damage on them. After all it is useless to cut water with a sword. The more his healthpoints were shrinking, the more grew the noise of the background music into an eery sound foreshadowing the death that would follow soon. As his hp fell into the red zone, he remembered that he had some matches inside his pockets which the dead man at the campfire had given him. Since the wind came from the right direction he hoped it would strenghten the flame. It seemed as if luck was on his side. The matches weren't drenched. When he lit them, the flame grew through the wind and turned the parts of the ghosts they were catching into steam. That way Kirito could escape their grasp and cut off a few branches of near by trees setting them aflame to fight the water ghosts. Black Rose had seen his method and copied it, but instead of matches she used fire magic.

At the tower where one can create ones character the players had also the chance to chose a few abilities. Since Kirito was used to the way of fighting in SAO he didn't use the magic in ALO too much and thus decided to rather take on skills like hiding or vision instead of elementar magic like fire as Black Rose did. Combining both their attacks it didn't take long until there was only steam left of the once powerfull water ghosts.

Just like last time, the messenger arrived after the battle was finished.

"It was brave to help Black Rose alone, even though your level is low, Kirito, but it was stupid to rush a had without a plan. Your recklessness almost got you killed this time.

Black Rose, it wasn't one of your best fights, but still, you survived alone for a long time. For this I will reward you with a potion to heal your wounds.

Where you the only ones who took part in the battle?"

Kirito kept silent, but Black Rose had no remorse to taddle about their fleeing companions

"Imgrimsch, Siberias, Guliastos and Orik startet the mission with us, but abandoned me when they realized that their weapons didn't do any damage."

"It saddens me to hear that", the messenger answered emotionless, "I'll have to punish them for their cowardice. Kirito, you will come with me."

Kirito followed the messenger, wondering what will happen now. After walking for a while, they reached a dark cave. As they arrived the messenger started talking again.

"You are a brave man, Kirito. And we need brave people to fight against Ortholan. Despite being a level one, you fought better than people with higher levels. Do you want to continue playing?"

"Of course!", after all he hadn't finished his job in the slightest and he was getting curious about the real mystery behind the game.

"I anticipated that you would answer like that, so I will help you. But you will have to do something for me in return."

"Ok, what should I do?" 'Probably some kind of quest'.

"Kirigaya Kazuto shall go to Cereluan Tower . There he will find a box hidden near the entrance. He is not allowed to look into it. He shall hide it under the bridge in Yoyogi Park. The mission shall be finished until one pm tomorrow. If he succeeds, I will heal you and make you level two. Do you have any questions?"

"Do you mean the Yoyogi Park in Tokyo in the real world?"

"Of course, do you know any other park with the same name? If you fail to finish the mission in time, try to cheat or speak about it to anyone it will be seen as a breach of rules and you wil not be able to start the game anymore."

"Understood."

Than the world became black around him and he was forcibly logged out.

'How was it possible that the game knew he was living in Tokyo? And why should he do something in the real world? After all the game had no method to know about things outside of the game. And the devellopers couldn't possibly run around all day to control this strange missions, could they? The further he went into the game the more strange it got'

* * *

**AN:** Did you notice from which series I took Imgrimsch, Orik, Sinthoras and Yuki? Those who PM me the right solution will get the next chapter half a week before posting it.

Please leave a review. They always motivate me to continue writing.

I wish all of you a great new year!


	4. Chapter 4

**AN**.: _Thank you very much for reading my story. _

To the Guest reviewer: _Thank you for liking my story. Why did you think that I wouldn't update anymore? I clearly stated that updates would be published at least once every two month._

**Disclaimer**: _I own neither Sword Art Online nor the original book Erebos. They both belong to their respective copyright holders. I just borrowed their characters and parts of the storyline._

* * *

Kirito tried to log into Erebos, but instead of letting him play, the game wouldn't even start. So he had no other choice but try to accomplish this ridiculous mission if he wanted to continue playing - and he had to continue if he ever wanted to find out the mysteries behind the game.

Would he really find a box near the CeruanTower? Did the game give him a mission in Tokyo because it knew he was living there or was it just pure luck that he didn't have to travel all over Japan to accomplish the mission of researching the game? He sighed. At the moment he had no means to answer the questions. Hopefully going further into the game would answer them. Since it was already late, he decided to do the mission on the next morning. After all he had no school on Saturdays, so he would have enough time till one pm to finish the mission.

When he finished breakfast he took his backpack to carry the box unnoticed and told his sister that he wanted to look for some hardware, knowing that she would have wanted to accompany him if he had just said he was going to the nearest underground station he took the Shibuya line to the Shibuya station. From then on he continued walking until he reached the CeruanTower. You could hardly miss it. After all it was one of the largest monuments in Tokyo. He paused thinking whether to buy some hardware as an alibi, but decided against it since it was highly expensive and his wallet almost empty thanks to Suguha.

Reaching the tower, he looked around, trying to be not too suspicious. As there were not many people around sightseeing at this ungodly hour, he didn't have to be worried to be reported for suspicious behaviour. To his surprise he really found a box near the entrance, but it was hidden well, so that a normal passerby wouldn't notice it. He was glad that he had decided to bring his backpack, since the box was not only rather large but also heavy, so that transporting it would raise unwanted questions and would certainly result in aching muscles.

'What could be hidden in the box that was this heavy' he wondered. He was more than curious to know, but the box was sealed with strong duct tape which made opening it without leaving traces impossible. And leaving traces wouldn't end well. After all the messenger had warned him that he would be thrown out of the game if he didn't abide the rules.

Inspecting the box in detail, he noticed that something was carved in the wood it was made of.

'Sarius 09182008'

Saruis sounded Latin, but it could also be a name of someone of the players of Erebos. And the numbers were his birth date. A coincidence? Deciding not to rack his brain any further with this stupid mission he put he box in his backpack and headed towards Yoyogi Park, the place he was told to hide the box in. On his way he crossed the famous Hachiko statue.

Reaching the park, he admired the beautiful landscape full of trees and watched the sportsmen training for the next competition. The park had a calm atmosphere. Even though the park wasn't too far from his house, Kirito hadn't been there before. When he was younger he had spent a lot of time with kendo, and after that he was using all his time on computers, not going out of his room besides for school and visiting friends. So he didn't knew the outlines of the rather big park which resulted in a long search for the appointed bridge.

When he finally found the bridge, he made sure that nobody was watching him and hid the box in a place that wasn't easy to see from the path. He had accomplished the mission in time. When he arrived home, the urge to play Erebos was big, but he decided to watch the result of the auction first. According to the official ALO website, Balmung had been sold for over a million dollars. Seeing the ridiculous amount of zeros lined up in a row made his head swirl.

Logging into Erebos he found himself in the same place he had been thrown out of the day before. Standing in front of him was the messenger.

"I see that you have fulfilled your mission, so I keep my promise, too. You are fully healed and are now on level two. Furthermore I will give you a better armour with +20 defence and +5 agility." The armour was out of black leather that looked fragil, but was as hard and light as mythril. Kirito thanked the messenger for the equipment.

"Erebos likes trustworthy players, so he has a present for you. Log into ALO and you will find it there."

How did the game knew that he was playing ALO? Since he was used to have unanswered questions about the game, he logged out of Erebos and into ALO, curious what he would get.

Opening his equipment, he found an item in it that hadn't been in there before - the legendary sword Balmung. How did the sword get there? Was it a bug? Hopefully the one responsible for putting it in there didn't steal it from the previous owner after all the sword was worth a fortune. If doing such a small mission would grant him such a valuable present, what even greater things would be possible with Wish Crystals?

Euphoric about his new weapon, he decided to test it out on the highest floor. It cut through monsters like a knife through butter. With this sword he would be almost invincible. But his killing spree was interrupted soon, when Asuna logged in and noticed his new equipment.

"Isn't that the legendary sword Balmung? How did you get it? You couldn't possibly afford such an expensive item, I've followed the auction"

Kirito pondered on what to say. He wasn't allowed to disclose anything about Erebos. And even if he wouldn't be thrown out of the game for telling an 'outsider', Asuna would surely try to keep him from playing it. That was something he couldn't allow to happen.

So he just answered "A friend, who is a rich heir, knew how much I wanted the sword and gave it to me in exchange for helping him with a bad computer virus"

Asuna wasn't convinced at all, she never heard about any other friends, especially not rich ones. But she didn't want to insist on an answer, knowing that Kirito had his reasons for not telling. She knew him well enough to be sure that he didn't use illegal means to get a hold of it, which was enough for her, at the moment at least.

To avoid further questioning, Kirito decided to log out and continue playing Erebos. Also there was always the possibility of finding a wish crystal which could grand him even greater wishes. Wasn't it also his responsibility to continue playing? After all he had accepted the job from Kikuoka and would receive money for it. He shouldn't waste too much time with unnecessary conflicts that weren't avoidable if he continued playing ALO.

Logging into Erebos, he found himself once again opposite the messenger inside the old cave.

"Did you like the present?" the messenger asked with a hidden smile.

"Yeah. Thank you very much."

"You have the choice to continue with one of two quests. Either you accompany a troll raid or you will go on a search for GingkoVillage, the village behind the leaves. On the raid you will probably gain a lot of money and equipment, while in the village there will be an arena fight tomorrow in which you can fight for money, levels and even wish crystals."

Fighting was more his cup of tea than searching for something hidden, but the temptation to receive a wish crystal was too big to let this chance go.

So he answered "I'll search for the hidden village."

"I knew that you would say that. Don't take too much time. You can only enlist for the tournament till 12pm tonight. Farewell." With that the messenger disappeared in the darkness.

Leaving the cave, Kirito was at a loss where to start his search. The village could be located anywhere. Wait, what he had learned in geography? In the old times, most cities were located near water sources or mountains that would protect them from attackers ... and the water ghosts had lived in a strange, orange river. So most logical approach would be to go back to the river and follow its path. But where was the river again? Sigh, he had relied too much on Yui for directions. He was so used to her guidance that he didn't look at his surroundings as much as he had done in SAO. To make things even worse, it had already been dark when they had finished the fight, so hadn't been able to see any far marks he could have used as a guide.

Since running around wildly would only reduce his stamina bar and waste time, he calmed himself and listened to his surroundings. There it was! To his south-west he could hear the sound of running water. Completely relying on his ears, he followed the sound, until he had reached the orange river. But where to continue from here?

The village was called Village behind the leaves, so it would be probably located near a forest and not inside of it, after all it wasn't called village hidden IN the leaves. Since the forest grew bigger stream upwards, he decided to follow the stream downward until he was out of the forest and hoped that he would find the village somewhere near.

After walking for a while and enjoying his peaceful surroundings, Kirito took in the faint smell of blood. Alarmed he looked around him, to see where it came from. Soon he found the source of the bad smell: a torn piece of armour, torn and soaked with the blood of its owner. But where was the owner? Kirito shuddered at the thought of what could have happened to him. As if to agree to his bad foreboding, the reason for the lone piece of cloth appeared: a giant dog, looking bored, waiting for a new toy to play with and kind of ... hungry. Kirito gulped. This dog reminded him more of a rabid Cerberus that a cute pet dog. His teeth could shatter bones and his paws could knock of his head. And it was fast. Incredibly fast. It came running at him with great speed, happy to have found some new food to toy with.

But high speed also meant that he couldn't easily change directions. Kirito used this to his advantage. Thanks to his level up, he could move not only faster, but also had more stamina, making him able to endure a long fight. When the dog charged at him, he swiftly moved to the side, attacking it from behind while it attacked the thin air. Luckily the dog was not Cerberus, so could attack from the blind points, without being noticed. As the dog turned around, Kirito ran through his legs to the other side, thus able to attack from behind again. Like that he evaded the deathly teeth and only had to pay attention not to be stomped on or be hit by the tail the dog was whipping angrily. After a long time, since he could not attack its weak points as it was to dangerous alone, he finally defeated the monster of a dog. As a reward, he got 40 gold coins and some meat to replenish his HP.

Taking in his surroundings, he noticed a large row of ginkgo trees that looked a bit strange. They were all on the same height, and you couldn't walk between their trunks. Having a strange feeling about their arrangement, Kirito walked nearer to inspect them more detailed. Now he realized why they had seemed strange. They were planted so close, because they made a giant maze. The dog must have guarded its entrance. The village behind the leaves ... could the ginko leaves be meant? What would be a better way to hide and guard the city from intruders than a maze?

Happy to have finally found the right path, he marched right into the it. At first he continued following the river, but when the first crossroad came, he was forced to change his direction. Now he had no point of orientation anymore and unfortunately he didn't have anything to mark the road either. The path was too hard to carve something in and the tree trunks were protected by the system. So he had no choice but to rely on his sense of orientation. Walking deeper and deeper into the forest, he had the feeling of being followed, but when he looked around, no one was there. He kept being cautious, and after a while, he heard some faint noise from above, getting louder with time.

He looked up not a minute too late, over the tree branches which kept out most of the sun, two giant spiders had silently surrounded him. The only thing which saved him was the background noise, warning him of an enemy. The scenario reminded him of an old movie he had seen, where two boys had run away from giant spiders in a forest ... what was its name again? Anyway, the spiders would not have been too hard to fight normally, he was strong enough to keep them on distance, but they were hard to see in the dark, which made fighting them harder. Parrying their legs and teeth with one sword, and targeting their legs and eyes with the other, it didn't take long to defeat them. His victory had cost him about a seventh of his health, but there was nothing in the rewards to replenish it with, so he had no choice but to continue with a shortened health bar.

A few crossings later, he realised he was lucky to have acted on his hearing. A cat women was lying on the ground with almost no health remaining. She must have been caught absentmindly since she seemed to have been attacked from behind. Probably she had been wounded beforehand at the entrance and than decided to shut off the background music which gets pretty loud and disrupting as the health bar declines.

She asked Kirito for help, but he couldn't offer any. He had no items to heal her with and wasn't able to cast healing spells. He hadn't wanted them, since they could only be used on other players. Since he preferred to work alone, they were useless to him.

He left her, despite his nagging conscience telling him to take her with him. She wouldn't be able to walk, and he couldn't protect them both if attacked. So he just continued walking and defeated the spiders in his way, taking useful parts of them he could sell later. After a short while he came into a larger clearing with three paths going from it. In the middle of the clearing some people were sitting around a camp fire talking. Going nearer, he recognized Black Rose and Imgrimsch, sitting together with an unknown dark elf. The elf seemed to be really strong and had good equipment.

"Konbanwa Black Rose-san, Imgrimsch-san,"Kirito greeted them.

"Konbanwa, Kirito-san. So you are finally a two, congratulations."

"Thank you."

Then Black Rose introduced him to the stranger,

"Kirito-san, this is Sinthoras, he is one of the strongest players around here."

"Hajimemashite. I'm Kirito. It's nice to meet you,"Kirito sayed politely, but Sinthoras ignored him, giving him a ridiculing look.

Just when he was about to start an argument, Siberias entered with a big grin on his face

"What do you think I just found?", he grinned at Kirito evilly.

"You found a Wish Crystal!" Imgrimsch stated disbelievingly.

"I found it in one of the spiders protecting this maze", he added, still grinning at Kirito.

Why is he looking at me like that, Kirito asked himself. Then he caught on. Siberias had found the Wish Crystal in one of the spiders he had killed. It should rightfully belong to him!

"That is my Wish Crystal! You stole him from me!" Kirito shouted angrily. Who knows what he would have got with the Wish Crystal, if a simple mission awarded him with the most expensive weapon of ALO.

Siberias just snorted "Finders, keepers. It's not my fault that you have been too stupid to find it."

That angered Kirito all the more, he knew, that logically Siberias was right, but did he have to boast like that? He couldn't stand guys like that. Overwhelmed by anger, he stormed at Siberias, who was probably at least one level higher if not even more.

Furious about Siberias' audacity to keep HIS Wish Crystal, Kirito stormed at him, swinging his sword wildly. The other players were shocked. Attacking players outside of duels was unheard of since there was a high chance to die if you didn't knew your opponents level, and attacking someone of a lower level was cowardly and most of the time useless.

After the shock of the surprise attack had subsided Siberias caught himself and started his counterattack. Kirito had only stolen a few lp from him, so he was far from defeated and was two level stronger than his opponent, not that Kirito would be able to know that fact.

Since Kirito was weaker in stats, he tried to win the fight through experience and tactic. He saw through the faints of Siberias without even having to think. While most people had no combat experience out side of some casual gaming, Kirito had not only practiced Kendo for years, but also was locked inside of SAO, which trained his swordsmanship to the point of acting out of pure reflex without even having to think about how he should parry or attack.

This threw Siberias out of balance. He had expected Kirito to be a total newbie and wasn't prepared for such a strong enemy. He may had no problems reflecting Kirito's attack, but he couldn't see through his faints, resulting into his LP sinking slowly, but steadily. His only chance to win this fight was to continuously attack, hoping to overthrow Kirito through force alone.

Kirito had no chance to defend himself against this onslaught. He tried to dodge the hits, but neither his stamina nor his speed could keep up with what his brain told his body to do. So he retreated to catch his breath … and to take out his second sword which he had kept hidden until know to give him the advantage of surprise. And it worked Kirito went into the offensive again, attacking Siberias with both of his swords simultaneously.

Siberias couldn't escape now anymore. He may have been able to dodge one sword, but two? Impossible. Every time he evaded one hit, another hit him with full force until his hp almost reached zero.

"Give me back my Wish Crystal and I won't kill your character," Kirito offered him, but Siberias was reluctant. He wouldn't get the chance to find a Wish Crystal this easily anytime soon.

"The Crystal will be of no use for you if your character is dead. You know the rules, if you die in game, you will no longer be able to play," Kirito continued. He really didn't want to kill Siberias, even if it was just a game, he wasn't use to killing PCs, he preferred hunting mobs and his anger had dissolved during the battle.

His opponent still hesitated for a short while, but then gave him the Crystal. A sword at your neck was persuasive after all.

The reactions of the other players present were mixed. Black Rose seemed angry at him for just attacking Siberias without a warning and Sinthoras ridiculed Siberias for losing against a mere two.

As always after a fight, the messenger appeared.

"You have fought very well Kirito. Still attacking your comrades without a warning is not something I like to see. Next time ask the player for a duel. Siberias' Wish Crystal is enough of a reward for your win.

Siberias, not only did you take the reward of another player's hunt, but you also lost against someone two level below your rank. For your failures I will take back one of your levels"

Siberias didn't want his hard earned level to be taken away, but also didn't want to risk an even greater punishment for arguing with the messenger and compiled.

As no arguments came, the messenger vanished once again into thin air.

Since Kirito didn't want to lose any more time, he said good-bye to the others and continued his way through the maze, taking the second of the three paths. After a few turns he could see the orange river again and followed it to the exit of the maze. As he went trough the exit a fanfare in his BGM activated and a voice said

'Welcome in GinkgoVillage, Kirito.'

**Please review to let me know wether you liked the chapter, have ideas how I should continue or want me to change something. All opinions are highly welcome!**


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